Today’s visit to Parchman was eye-wrenching. The chief question that I will think about for the rest of this trip is: Why I’m not in Parchman?

Another thing that bothers me is the fact that many people reduce incarceration to an individual issue instead of a social problem. They fail to see how prisoners are not born but created. And, there are several institutions that lead to their creation. One of the major contributors is poverty. After all, why do people sell drugs… to make money? I’m aware that there are cases where the individual clearly was negligible; but I still hold that institutions within society work together to create criminals. I remember, watching children matriculate into group homes with minor behavioral problems and exiting with a multitude of problems and new criminal methods. After all, prisons are often a classroom that teaches prisoners how to commit a crime without getting caught.

Before I close, I must comment once more on the power of antagonistic relationships and highlight some that were made clear today at Parchman. First, antagonistic relationships work to oppress people by setting two groups against each other that have similar interest if one were to explore beneath the surface. For example, at Parchman the guards in the camera room told how they have to keep their identity hidden from the other guards because if they knew that they were the ones watching the camera they would be at risk. This antagonistic relationship will prevent these guards from ever coming together to fight for their rights and prevent further exploitation. This type of relationship was also clear in hearing the prisoners talk about how the guards also function to keep tension between the inmates.

Tomorrow - we will visit Clarksdale, MS + Tunica, MS + Memphis, TN

To be continued ……..

Tuesday 5, 2007 our class went to Parchman, a maximum security penitentiary located in the Mississippi. I had never been to a prison before and I didn’t know what to expect. We started off with an introduction from one of the inmates who is in prison for drug possession and selling. His name is Rafeal King and he was passionate during our talk with him and he repeated that he was going to keep it real. One interesting point he brought up that will remain with me forever is that he wished that he was actor performing so that he could go home. Often, I try to forget what conditions are like in institutions such as prisons. Prisons are often portrayed in films but there is nothing like actually living out your days, weeks, months, years and for some lives in prison.

Parchman definitely has an “old school” feeling to it. There are fields and prisoners that work them with hoes and there are field guards that carefully oversee the inmates. A few of the people we were able to speak to told us that Parchman is known for housing some of the worst criminals of the state with common crimes being murder, rape, drug possession and selling, assault and others. Two of the inmates we spoke with told us that pedifials are treated with the lowest amount of respect and are on the bottom of the food chain. All three of the men we spoke to said that they would give up anything to not be in prison because of everything that they have missed out in especially dealing with the development of their children’s lives. King told us that he has never seen his son play football and that his son is the star of a winning team and that his dream after release is to have all his children together so that they can enjoy one another. That comment was really powerful and it made me think of the value that parent’s have in their children’s lives. Also, the men we spoke cared about future generations and wanted the message to get out to our group that prison is not a place that anyone should want to be.

A ward in the prison that stuck out to me was the AIDS ward which houses a good percentage of men in Parchman. The goal is that this will keep down the spread of the disease. I think that this ward is really important because after watching a documentary, I learned a lot about the secret lives that many men have in prison. There are so many young college age Black men today entering prison instead of attending college. Also, another point made today that really shocked me was the demographic of many of the prison guards in Parchman and other prisons today. I fit the description of a lot of the prison guards today, an 18 year old Black female. When this was mentioned in our class discussion, it brought up the point that there aren’t many opportunities for employment in that area and the Mississippi Delta in general. This also connects with the situation viewed in Lalee’s Kin on how low the socio economic status of many of the Black and White people in the Mississippi Delta. Prison life is truly a different world and in my opinion the justice system has some serious issues with the determining the length of sentences. I’m grateful for this experience and more students need to have a similar experience in a state penitentiary.

I have to start this by saying I have NEVER seen this much farmland in my life: cotton fields, rice fields, corn fields, catfish ponds, etc, etc, etc. The Mississippi Delta definitely is agricultural country. Along with its agriculture, Miss. is also famous for Blues music. There are so many names beyond the legendary B.B. King associated with the explosion of Blues music in the Delta and fortunately a historic Blues trail is in the works. I grew up watching the movie The Color Purple where Shug Avery used to sing at Harpo’s Jook Joint but never in a million years did it cross my mind that such places still existed. Well, yesterday not only did I find out such a place still exists, I actually got to experience a night at Po Monkey’s Jook Joint in Merigold, MS and I felt like I was in a scene right out of the movie. It is great to see that this place that was historically created to provide some entertainment and escape for black sharecroppers is still thriving and draws in a more integrated, age-varying crowd.

Today was quite a transition from the upbeat, toe-tapping fun experienced at the Jook Joint. We went to Parchman, the maximum security pentitiary in the state of Miss. Let me just say that if the words by Nat King Cole, “straighten up and fly right,” never meant anything to you, they truly will after experiencing a little time at Parchman. I hate comparing reality to movies, but oddly enough the condition for prisoners presented in the movie Life with Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence display a pretty good depiction of southern prison life that functions with an on-site agricultural economy. Of course, Murphy and Lawrence got to take a nice shower, change clothes and eat a good meal after filming a few scenes; this “luxury” is definitely not the case for Parchman inmates.